If you are hunting for a Cluely alternative, the number that usually decides it is this: Cluely’s undetectable mode costs $149.99 a month, while Craqly includes stealth on its free plan. For anyone whose main goal is interview help rather than an all-day assistant, that gap is hard to ignore. This is the full, honest comparison, with the places Cluely genuinely wins left in.
If interviews are the reason you are shopping, Craqly wins on the one feature that matters most: undetectable stealth, free to test before you pay. Cluely is the better buy only if you want a single all-day assistant across every app and the $149.99 stealth tier does not bother you.
What Cluely actually is
Cluely is a generalist AI overlay. Its whole pitch is “cheat on everything,” which spans meetings, sales calls, homework, and interviews. It raised $20.3M across a seed round and a Series A, so it is a real, funded product, not a weekend project. The overlay sits on your screen and feeds you answers in real time, and on its top tier it hides from screen-sharing software.
That breadth is the point, and for some people it is exactly right. If you want one assistant that follows you through a sales demo in the morning and a study session at night, Cluely is built for that. The trouble starts when interviews are your actual reason for buying.
Why people look for a Cluely alternative
Two things send interview candidates shopping. The first is the price of stealth. Cluely’s $19.99 Pro plan does not hide from screen share at all. To get the undetectable overlay, the feature most interview candidates actually want, you have to be on the $149.99 tier. So the one capability you came for sits behind the most expensive plan in the lineup.
The second is focus. Cluely is a do-everything tool, which means it does not have an interview-specific workflow. There is no behavioral mode, no coding mode, no system-design framing. You get a general assistant and have to steer it yourself. In a live interview, where you have seconds to react, that lack of structure costs you.
Pricing, side by side
Craqly bills in credits. One credit is one minute of live session, and the allowance resets every month. Cluely bills by seat with unlimited usage on its paid tiers, so the two models do not map one to one. Both sets of numbers below were read off the vendors’ own pricing pages on 22 July 2026.
| Cluely | Craqly | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Starter: limited AI responses and notetaking, no stealth | Starter: 20 credits/month (20 minutes), all 5 modes, stealth included |
| Entry paid | Pro $19.99/mo (no stealth) | Pro $19/mo (180 credits, 3 hours) |
| Stealth (undetectable) | Pro + Undetectability, $149.99/mo | Every plan, including free |
| Top tier | $149.99/mo | Pro Max $39/mo (420 credits, 7 hours), Ultra $69/mo (780 credits, 13 hours) |
| Built for | All-day general use | Live spoken sessions, interviews first |
Read the stealth row twice. It is the whole story. If interviews are why you are here, Cluely’s real price is $149.99, while Craqly’s is zero to try and $19 to keep.
The stealth difference, in plain terms
Stealth means the overlay does not show up when you share your screen or when an interviewer records the call. It is the single feature that separates a tool you can actually use in an interview from one that gets you caught. Cluely gates it behind its top plan. Craqly ships it on the free Starter plan, so you can run a mock interview, share your screen to a friend, and confirm the overlay is invisible before you ever enter a card number. That “try the risky part for free” approach is rare, and it matters more than any feature list.
One caveat on the free plan, since I would rather you hear it here than find out mid-session. 20 credits is 20 minutes, and 20 minutes is a stealth test, not a rehearsal. It is plenty to record a mock, play the tape back, and confirm the overlay is missing. It is not enough to sit through a full 45-minute behavioral round. Treat Starter as the proof step and budget a paid month for the search itself.
How interviewers actually notice an overlay
Most candidates picture a webcam catching their eyes drifting. The real risk is simpler. Remote interviews run inside Zoom, Google Meet, or a coding platform like HackerRank, and every one of those can record or screen-share your full display. If your assistant renders as a normal window, it lands in that recording. A reviewer scrubbing the tape later sees a floating answer box, and the call is over.
True stealth works at the operating-system layer, telling the screen-capture pipeline to skip that window entirely. It is either built that way or it is not, and you cannot tell from a feature checkbox. This is exactly why testing it for free changes the decision. With Craqly you record a mock, play it back, and see for yourself that the overlay is missing from the video. With Cluely you pay $149.99 first and hope your setup matches theirs.
Where Cluely is the better pick
Credit where it is due. If you want a single assistant that follows you through sales calls, study sessions, team meetings, and interviews, Cluely’s range is a genuine advantage that a focused tool cannot match. It will help with homework and a casual brainstorm in a way Craqly will not, because Craqly is built for spoken sessions, not everything. Cluely’s paid tiers are also unmetered, so a heavy user never watches a credit counter. If you run four or five hours of assisted calls a day, that flat structure beats buying credits, and Cluely’s top tier earns its price.
Where Craqly pulls ahead
Three things, in the order they tend to matter.
First, stealth is not a paywall. You test Craqly’s undetectability on the free plan before paying a cent. With Cluely you commit to $149.99 to find out whether it even works for your setup.
Second, it is built for interviews, not bolted onto a do-everything app. Craqly runs all 5 session modes, including behavioral, coding, and system design, so the help is shaped to the round you are actually in. Sales and meetings are there too when you need them.
Third, price and payments. Pro is $19 a month against Cluely’s $149.99 for stealth, yearly billing takes 20% off that, and if you are in India, Craqly bills in rupees through Razorpay rather than dollars only, which quietly saves you the card-conversion tax.
Who each one is for
Pick Cluely if you want one tool for your whole day, interviews are just one slice of that, you would rather not think about a monthly minute budget, and the $149.99 stealth price is fine. Pick Craqly if interviews, sales calls, or meetings are the job, you want stealth without paying up front, and a few hours a month of live help covers your search.
The honest catch
I am not going to pretend Cluely is bad, because it is not. Its stealth is real and its breadth is a true selling point. If you specifically want all-day stealth across every app on your screen, its $149.99 tier does more than an interview tool ever will. The catch on our side is the meter: Pro gives you 3 hours a month, and a candidate deep in an onsite loop can burn that in a week and need Pro Max at $39 or Ultra at $69. I could be wrong about how often that happens, since most people we see run well under the cap. But if interviews are the job, paying $149.99 when Craqly hands you stealth for free is tough to justify, and most people in that spot end up switching.
Cluely alternative FAQ
Is there a free Cluely alternative with stealth?
Yes. Craqly’s free Starter plan includes the undetectable screen-share mode and all 5 session modes, capped at 20 credits a month, which is 20 minutes of live session. Cluely’s free plan has no stealth at any usage level.
Is Craqly cheaper than Cluely for interviews?
For stealth, clearly. Craqly Pro is $19 a month with stealth included and 180 credits, which is 3 hours of live session. Cluely’s stealth tier is $149.99 a month, though it is unmetered once you pay.
Does Cluely work for more than interviews?
It does, and that is its strength. If you want a general all-day assistant over a focused interview tool, Cluely is the broader option.
Is Cluely undetectable on the cheaper plan?
No. The $19.99 Pro plan does not hide from screen share. Only the $149.99 Pro plus Undetectability tier is invisible to meeting screen-sharing software.
Can I use Craqly for coding interviews specifically?
Yes. Craqly has a dedicated coding mode alongside behavioral and system-design modes, so the assistant frames its help for the round you are in rather than answering as a generic chatbot.
Which should you pick?
Want a broad all-day tool and the price is fine? Cluely. Want undetectable interview help without paying up front, plus a tool that also covers sales and meetings? Start with Craqly’s free plan. If you are weighing more than these two, our roundup of the best AI interview copilots and our 2026 pricing comparison lay out the full field. You can also compare us against Final Round AI and Interview Coder.
Test Craqly stealth free
20 credits a month, which is 20 minutes of live session, undetectable mode included, no card required.
Cluely pricing checked against cluely.com/pricing on 22 July 2026; Craqly pricing checked against craqly.com/pricing the same day; funding figures via Crunchbase. Prices change often, so confirm on the official pages before you buy.